China has emerged as
the biggest customer for the military industry in the Ukraine. Ukraine, the
former Soviet state, will likely see China becoming its foremost partner for
military technology very soon, according to reports published in Duowei News
that is run by Chinese expats.

Sino-Ukrainian
diplomatic ties marked their 20th anniversary in 2013. Ukraine has
been credited with being rather instrumental in propelling China’s progress in
the military sector over this period.

Last year marked the
20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and
Ukraine, which has been credited with much of China's military development
during this period. Thus, far, Ukraine has reportedly exported as many as
thirty different types of technologies in the military domain to the mainland.
These include technologies that are related to large vessels, aircraft
carriers, tank engines, trainer aircraft, as well as air-to-air missiles.

It was following the
fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 that China began to cooperate with Ukraine.
Following this, a number of highly skilled researchers were offered job
opportunities by various foreign countries including Germany, Israel, the U.S.,
and Singapore. At this point, China also recruited a number of national-level research
professionals using attractive incentives such as free visas and flight
tickets. The positive Sino-Soviet relations played a key role in ensuring the
success of this recruitment initiative by China.

In the early 1990s
though, China lagged behind slightly in military technology. While initially
this technological exchange was easier, Soviet research experts eventually
began to demand more money and were willing to share much less information
pertaining to technology sharing.

It was at this point
that the then Chinese premier Li Peng introduced an initiative wherein special
awards for friendship were handed out to foreign research professionals for
their scientific contributions.

In fact, reports have
indicated that China has introduced one of the highest numbers of technical and
research experts from not just Russia, but the other Soviet Union countries.